News Features

Riley County Vision 2025 Awarded for Excellence

by Lauren Swirbul

Riley County has been growing exponentially over the past few years. Along with the
rapid growth comes the conflict over land between agricultural use and residential
use. In response, the Board of County Commissioners came up with a comprehensive plan
to develop a planning solution for Riley County called Riley County Vision 2025. The
planning process of Riley County Vision 2025 started in 2005 with public opinion surveys
of what citizens thought of the current land use issue.

In Oct. 2009, the Board of County Commissioners appointed a 25-member committee from
organizations that would successfully contribute to the inclusive plan. Committee
members included local builders, realtors, developers, township officers, school district
members, and the sand and gravel industry. The committee was charged with addressing
three aspects of the issue. The first aspect was to examine the relationship between
private property and the furtherance of the public health, safety, and general welfare.
The second was to determine the appropriate balance of private property rights and
the public good and develop principles that will be used to make decisions regarding
future land use in Riley County. Finally, the committee needed to make specific recommendations
to the Riley County Planning Board and the Board of County Commissioners. Kansas State
University's Institute for Civic Discourse and Democracy (ICDD) was then contracted
to help organize and facilitate all committee meetings.

The committees created a Land Evaluation Site Assessment (LESA) to have residential
projects approved and to ensure nearby citizens were aware of the rights of nearby
agriculture uses.

Riley County Vision 2025 incorporated and engaged the public in this issue by holding
seven public meetings to discuss balancing property rights. In the end, the project
had a significant amount of support from the public.

The project was awarded the 2010 American Planning Association Kansas Chapter Award.
The award consists of five categories including New Horizon, Sod Buster, Pioneer Award
(urban), Pioneer Award (rural), and Ad Astra. Riley County Vision 2025 won the Pioneer
Award (rural). The award honors excellence in plans, individuals, and organizations.
In addition, the project was recently recognized by the National Association of County
Planners and will be awarded at the American Planning Association National Conference
in Boston on April 10, 2011.

"We are currently working on implementing regulations and have had a couple of discussions
with the Riley County Planning Board regarding draft language," said Monty Wedel, director
of the Riley County Planning and Development Department. "We hope to have the entire
draft regulations completed for discussion with the Board at their May meeting."

Riley County Vision 2025 will continue to tackle the problem of land use in the area.
The Board of County Commissioners will implement the comprehensive plan by adopting
the new land regulations. Public meetings will be scheduled to review land development
plans.